Rockets set their sights on Lin, make him a contract offer

Share this:

Your vote is being added to the total. Votes are not reflected in the tallies immediately.

Loading ...

The Rockets brought Jeremy Lin back to town for a visit on Wednesday. Getting him to stay in Houston will be considerably more difficult and might have gotten tougher even as they met.

The Rockets on Wednesday made Lin an offer similar in total value to the contract Goran Dragic turned down. But Lin is a restricted free agent — giving the Knicks the opportunity to match any offer he receives — and New York received extra motivation to hang on to Lin while he met with Rockets general manager Daryl Morey and coach Kevin McHale.

Steve Nash, the veteran guard the Knicks had targeted, agreed to a sign-and-trade deal that will send him to the Lakers in exchange for a pair of first-round and pair of second-round picks. Nash, who was also considering the Raptors, Mavericks and Knicks, will receive a three-year, $27 million contract and a chance to play for a contender a short flight from his family in Phoenix.

The Knicks received more reasons to keep Lin. The Rockets will try to make that difficult.

High stakes

The stakes could be very high. The Rockets set their sights on Lin, a point guard they waived after 12 days in training camp last year, when they failed to reach an agreement with Dragic.

A person with knowledge of the negotiations with Dragic said that he would not be back with the Rockets and that Dragic has offers that greatly exceed their offer. Dragic visited with the Suns on Tuesday. He is also getting interest from the Raptors and Bobcats.

Besides failing to come to an agreement with Dragic, the Rockets withdrew their qualifying offer to Courtney Lee. The Bulls also can match the Rockets’ offer for restricted free-agent center Omer Asik.

If Lin agrees, the Rockets would structure his contract similarly to Asik’s, paying $5 million the first season and $5.2 million in the second season before jumping dramatically in the 2013-14 season.

The new, more punitive luxury tax begins that season. For the Rockets, the contract would count against the salary cap and luxury tax figures each year for only the average salary during the contract.

If the Knicks match, however, it would count the actual value paid each season toward the salary cap and luxury tax. Though New York has seemed determined to match any offer sheet Lin signs, the contract is structured in such a way that it would push the Knicks that season to the luxury tax threshold with just four players: Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler and Lin.

Knicks determined

The Knicks had seemed prepared for that possibility, choosing to pursue veteran point guards who could help mentor the 23-year-old Lin. With Nash unavailable, the Knicks could pursue Jason Kidd for that role.

The Rockets still have Kyle Lowry after draft-night trades fell through but still could be left searching, with the backcourt that finished the season — Dragic and Lee — likely gone and Lin, the point guard who got away, an increasingly difficult challenge to get back.